July 4 - A Flood, B-Days and More...

A flood, twinbills, Chuck Tanner & Jared Huges B-Days, Satch Paige, Jason Kendall, home run derbies...

• 1902 - The Pittsburgh Press headline read “River Invades The Park.” During a doubleheader against Brooklyn, a flooding Allegheny River caused water to rise knee-deep in Exposition Park’s outfield. A special ground rule was created for the day: all outfield hits into the water were singles. Players occasionally caught a ball and dove into the water to splash it in, much to the crowd’s delight - and there were over 20,000 in attendance. The Pirates swept the Superbas as Jesse Tannehill tossed a 3-0 two-hitter in the opener and Jack Chesbro a four-hit, 4-0 win in the nitecap.
• 1906 - The Cubs took two from the Pirates by 1-0 scores at Exposition Park. In the opener, Three Finger Mordecai Brown beat Lefty Leifield with both pitchers firing one-hitters. It was the second double one-hitter in history‚ the first occurring on August 20th‚ 1886. Leifield banged the only Buc hit off Brown while holding Chicago hitless until Jimmy Slagle's single in the ninth inning. The Cub came around on a sacrifice‚ error‚ and ground out. In the second game‚ Carl Lundgren won a duel against Vic Willis. The Pirates had only been shut out twice all season before the twinbill.
• 1927 - The Pirates swept the World Champion Cardinals‚ 7-2 and 6-4 in a Forbes Field doubleheader. Lee Meadows took the opener behind Johnny Gooch’s bases loaded triple. The Cards rallied to tie the second game in the top of the eighth, but Clyde Barnhart answered with a two run double in the bottom half for the win. Carmen Hill went the distance for the W.
• 1928 - Pirate skipper Chuck Tanner was born in New Castle. He managed the Pirates for nine years (1977–1985) and won the World Series in 1979. He was also skipper of the White Sox, Athletics and Braves. Tanner was traded for Manny Sanguillen to the Pirates in 1977 by Oakland, only the second manager-for-player trade in history.
• 1934 - Satchel Paige of the Pittsburgh Crawfords tossed a no-hitter against the Homestead Grays, the only runners reaching on an error and a walk. He struck out 17, establishing the all-time Negro Leagues record, and matching what was then the MLB whiff record for a single game.
• 1985 - Happy 28th B-Day to Jared Hughes, who was born in Stamford, CT.
• 1999 - C Jason Kendall dislocated his ankle in a loss to the Brewers. Trying to break up Steve Woodard's perfect game‚ Kendall dragged a bunt in the fifth inning and hit the bag awkwardly‚ ripping the ankle bone from the joint. He was out for the rest of the season, and many believed he was never quite the same after the gruesome injury. 
• 2000 - The Pirates scored seven times in the ninth, fueled by three homers, to drop the Cubs 10-4 at Wrigley Field. Jason Kendall, Wil Cordero and Pat Meares had the Bucco blasts that made a winner out of Marc Wilkins.  
• 2001 - Brian Giles and Adam Hyzdu homered twice while Aramis Ramirez added a pair of doubles, each driving in three runs, as the Bucs put on their own fireworks display in cruising to a 14-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Cinergy Field.